Progressive News Daily

culled from various sources
Please CLICK ON HEADLINE TO READ THE STORY

World’s tallest tower closed a month after opening
Iran moves closer to nuke warhead capacity
Haitians confront new threat: deadly spring rains
Toyota readies Prius steps; U.S. production restarts
Security chip that does encryption in PCs hacked
Weather closes government offices a second day
More snow due for storm-battered US east coast
Boeing’s new 747 jumbo jet soars in first flight
Toyota sued in California by U.S. shareholders
Dow closes below 10,000 for first time in 3 months
Whalers, activists clash again off Antarctica
Judge promises to rule on SEC, BofA settlement

By Michael O’Brien
The Hill.com

Congress could pass a limited moratorium on the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy this spring, a key chairwoman said Monday.

Rep. Susan Davis (D-CA), the chairwoman of the Military Personnel Subcommittee on the House Armed Services Committee, said that she hopes to include a measure prohibiting discharges for gay and lesbian members of the armed forces who are outed by colleagues.

“It’s important that the Congress does act in terms of the policy itself,” Davis said during an appearance on KPBS San Diego public radio.

Davis, whose committee has jurisdiction over the controversial policy, said that while the military conducts a review as to how to repeal its exclusion on gay and lesbian members, one of the first actions Congress would take is to stop discharges of members who are outed by others. (more)

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
The New York Times

LOS ANGELES — Nearly eight months after Michael Jackson died suddenly, his personal physician was charged Monday with involuntary manslaughter for providing him with a powerful anesthetic that was ruled a major factor in his death.

At his arraignment Monday afternoon at the Airport Courthouse, the doctor, Conrad Murray, pleaded not guilty.

The filing of the charges capped an investigation that revealed Mr. Jackson’s heavy reliance on narcotics, including propofol, an anesthetic normally used in surgery but administered to Mr. Jackson, 50, as a sleep aid.

Dr. Murray, a cardiologist with offices in Houston and Las Vegas, had acknowledged giving Mr. Jackson the drug shortly before the singer was found unconscious on June 25 in a rented mansion here, according to police affidavits. The coroner determined that Mr. Jackson had died from “acute propofol intoxication,” combined with other sedatives. (more)

by Mike Krumboltz
Yahoo News
“The Buzz”

("You Betcha")

Remember those quizzes you had on the state capitals back in junior high? Oh, the pressure! The temptation to write “Pierre, Olympia, Dover, Albany” on the inside of your hand was overwhelming, wasn’t it? But you resisted. Maybe Sarah Palin should have done the same.

The former vice presidential candidate seems to have been caught using curious crib notes during an interview this past weekend at the high-profile Teabagger Convention in Nashville. While speaking about her top political priorities, Ms. Palin gazed at her hand in a rather suspicious manner.

Later, Web researchers zoomed in on her left palm and found the following words scrawled in black ink: “Energy, Budget cuts (with “budget” crossed out), Tax, Lift American Spirits.” In an ironic twist during the speech, Ms. Palin worked in a jab against President Obama’s often-mocked use of TelePrompTers. You can watch the clip or check out a close-up here. (more)

by William Rivers Pitt
truthout.org

They say everything can be replaced,
Yet every distance is not near.
So I remember every face
Of every man who put me here.

- Bob Dylan, “I Shall Be Released”

I have a livid scar in the center of the back of my right hand. It is clearly visible, so I see it every day, and every time I see it, I am reminded of how I got it. One day, several boys in my junior high school class grabbed me and pinned me to the floor. They extended my right arm and held my hand flat to the floor. One of them took out a pencil and began violently rubbing it against the skin of that hand, until the skin broke, until little balls of my flesh stuck to the eraser, until the blood poured.

I did not cry, I did not scream, and with four larger boys crushing down on me, I could not fight back. See, that was the thing. They wanted to see how long I could go before I wept or cried out. These boys, and several of their friends, had been attacking me on a daily basis for more than two years at this point, and I had stopped giving them the satisfaction of my tears. They didn’t like that, so the eraser was meant to elicit the response they desired. (more)

By Robert Kuttner
AlterNet.org

So what will it be, Mr. Punch-it-through, or Mr. Bipartisan? Obama seems to be determined to give bipartisanship one more shot, hoping that his reasonableness will trump Republican obstruction.

Last week, right after his State of the Union Address, President Obama spent several hours with the Republicans at their Baltimore caucus retreat in his continuing, elusive quest for common ground. This week, he oscillated like a broken compass between bipartisan and partisan.

Obama’s meeting with the House Republican Caucus was immediately followed by two sessions where he sounded almost truculent. Speaking to a town meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire, Obama insisted that the health bill was alive, with or without Republican support. “We’re in the red zone,” he insisted. “We’ve got to punch it through.” (more)

By Ron Scherer
The Christian Science Monitor

(Just to the right of the smokestacks is the damage to the Kleen Energy Systems Plant)

Only three days before the massive explosion that killed at least five workers at a newly constructed natural gas plant in Middletown, Conn., the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) issued urgent new recommendations on how to prevent explosions when handling or purging natural gas pipelines.

It is too soon to know what happened at Kleen Energy Systems. But workers at the site were reportedly purging a natural gas pipeline prior to the explosion.

In its documentation detailing why it was recommending new safety standards, the CSB cited incidents that show striking similarities to the Connecticut disaster. In at least seven incidents since 1997, workers have died and large-scale damage has been done to buildings as a result of pipelines being purged in an enclosed area.

“We have far more incidents in the database than the half dozen that we have listed,” says Sandy Gilmour, a CSB spokesman. “The incidents listed were just the ones that jumped out to our investigators, because they were severe cases or because they could be documented.” (more)

by Ben Armbruster
Think Progress.org

Last week, Iran’s President Mahmoud Amadinejad said Tehran would have “no problem” agreeing on a deal to send its enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment. But today, Iran told the IAEA that it would back out of the deal and begin enriching its uranium stockpile in Iran. (more)

By David Dayen
FiredogLake.com <—Home Page

Chris Cillizza thinks the White House is making the filibuster a campaign issue. He’s a horse-race reporter, so everything’s a campaign issue to him. When all you have is a hammer, everything’s a nail, etc.

But the filibuster is not a campaign issue. It’s a governance issue. If you have 59 votes in the Senate and an artificial construct that demands 60, and a minority party committed to lockstep obstructionism over anything else, you have a governance problem. To be sure, Democrats have other levers at their disposal to get their agenda passed, and there are two most frequently cited – 1) using reconciliation for budgetary items, which cannot be filibustered – and which is basically the plan for passing a health care bill; and 2) highlighting and essentially shaming Republicans over their willingness to obstruct, the “make them filibuster” approach which starts with a coordinated information campaign of the kind we’re starting to see. Both of these are means to a governance end, not a campaign end.

Cillizza cites as proof that this is only campaign talk the article from his own paper stating that Harry Reid hasn’t scheduled a vote on the issue. But Tom Udall’s is calling for a rules change at the beginning of the next Congress, which he believes he can get with 50 votes. That cannot happen until January 2011, so there cannot possibly be a vote before then. In the meantime, you would need 67 votes for a rule change, and if that were possible, we wouldn’t be talking about a 60-vote filibuster. As for the nuclear option, that’s not a vote that you schedule, but a Parliamentary ruling that the chair makes and upholds by majority vote. (more)

The Washington Post

Here’s what Washington, D.C. and the surrounding area can expect in the next couple of days: MORE FREAKING SNOW!

There is still way too much snow outside to know what to do with and it is now increasingly likely we will be adding a big pile on top. The National Weather Service has now issued Winter Storm Warnings for tomorrow and Wednesday. As if that was not enough, this looks like quite the windy event, with blizzard conditions possible. Highs near freezing today and similar expected tomorrow will ensure that our snow base at the beginning of the event remains quite deep.

Through tonight: We see mostly clear skies early becoming cloudier as the night wears on. Temperatures fall to near 10 in the coldest spots to the mid-or-upper teens in the warmest.

(Tuesday): The day starts mostly cloudy before snow begins to arrive during midday and afternoon. Snow will pick up in intensity as we head into evening with the heaviest expected late at night and a possible lull prior to sunrise. Some mix with sleet is possible from around D.C. and to the south. Winds increase late at night, with gusts near and past 35 mph — blizzard conditions are possible by morning. Highs should reach the upper 20s to lower 30s with lows in the low-or-mid 20s.
(more)

By PETER JACKSON
AP

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Rep. John Murtha, a retired Marine Corps officer who became the first Vietnam War combat veteran elected to Congress and later an outspoken and influential critic of the Iraq War, died Monday. He was 77.

The Pennsylvania Democrat had been suffering complications from gallbladder surgery. He died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said.

Murtha was an officer in the Marine Reserves when he was elected in 1974. Ethical questions often shadowed his congressional service, but he was best known for being among Congress’ most hawkish Democrats. He wielded considerable clout for two decades as the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending.

Murtha voted in 2002 to authorize President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq, but his growing frustration over the administration’s handling of the war prompted him in November 2005 to call for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops. (more)

By KENNETH CHANG
The New York Times

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The space shuttle Endeavour thundered into orbit into the predawn sky on Monday.

It was the second attempt to launch the Endeavour, 24 hours after Sunday’s attempt was scrubbed because of clouds over the launching pad. Clouds again encroached, but there were enough holes to allow the Endeavour to lift off on schedule at 4:14 a.m., a bright streak rising to the northeast along the East Coast. It was the 130th launching of a shuttle and likely the last night launching as the program winds down and ends after another four flights.

The Endeavour is carrying the last major piece of the International Space Station. Two of Endeavour’s crew members, Nicholas J.M. Patrick and Air Force Lt. Col. Robert L. Behnken, will conduct three spacewalks to install the a 23-foot-long, 15-foot-wide Tranquility module.

The module includes a seven-windowed dome, or cupola, that will offer panoramic views of Earth and space. The viewing area, large enough for two astronauts, will be used for controlling the station’s 60-foot-long robotic arm and to observe other activities outside the station. (more)

by emptywheel
FiredogLake.com

Surprise, surprise. Just days after Crazy Pete Hoekstra did what Crazy Pete Hoekstra attacked Nancy Pelosi for last year–accused the CIA of lying–he’s now caught in another position he has criticized Pelosi for–not objecting in a briefing to an Administration policy he subsequently claimed to be vehemently opposed to. On Meet the Press this morning, John Brennan revealed that he briefed the Republican members of the Gang of Eight about the treatment of underwear bomber Umar Farouk Adbulmutallab (this is already an improvement on Bush policy, since they usually only briefed the Gang of Four). And they didn’t raise any objections to the planned treatment of him.

The Obama administration briefed four senior Republican congressional leaders on Christmas about the attempted terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound flight.

White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan said that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) and Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) did not raise any objections to bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab being held in FBI custody.

“They knew that in FBI custody there is a process that you follow. None of those individuals raised any concerns with me at this point,” Brennan said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “They were very appreciative of the information.”

(more)

By Micah Williams
In These Times.com

CHICAGO—The lights aren’t on at a swank restaurant on this city’s north side, but that didn’t stop a group of former employees from demanding what they say are stolen wages.

A group of 20 workers and community members took the quaint Andersonville neighborhood by surprise Thursday, with their second evening protest in front of the posh Mexican eatery Ole Ole. They announced their filing of a federal lawsuit and National Labor Review Board complaint over claims they are owed significant amounts of back pay.

As previously reported on this blog, former workers at the Spanish restaurant claim they are owed over $100,000 in lost wages, tips, and damages. In December, the restaurant narrowly averted a protest — organized by the Chicago branch of the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), a national organization previously profiled on Working ITT — with a last-minute agreement to negotiate with workers.

But according to organizers and workers, little came of those negotiations. On Thursday, workers filed a lawsuit demanding the workers’ pay — and protesting and leafleting in front of the now-closed restaurant. (more)

thanks to Crooks and Liars

by Taradacktyl
Republican Dirty Tricks.com

As President Obama’s continues to pine for Republicans like a battered spouse pining for his abuser, lets not fool ourselves… Republicans have no interest in tackling the enormous problems their dead-ender policies have inflicted on our nation due to the fact that they are not sharing the same reality as normal people.

Frank Shaefer put it best when he said, “a village cannot reorganize village life to suit the village idiot“ when referring to those (mostly Republicans) who believe that problems facing our planet are not to be tackled because Jesus will be right down to smite the wicked. Now the research commissioned by Markos Moulitsas for the Daily Kos website conducted by Research 2000, the nonpartisan research firm confirms the worst concerns of normal people (non-Republicans) that the “Party of No” is no more to be reasoned with than a child can be reasoned out of the belief of the monster in their closet after they blame it for wetting the bed. Ed Schultz and Markos Moulitsas discuss the new Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll revealing the crazy views of Republican voters:( more with video)

The Detroit News
cross posted at Blacklisted News

Washington –The State Department didn’t revoke the visa of foiled terrorism suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab because federal counterterrorism officials had begged off revocation, a top State Department official revealed Wednesday.

Patrick F. Kennedy, an undersecretary for management at the State Department, said Abdulmutallab’s visa wasn’t taken away because intelligence officials asked his agency not to deny a visa to the suspected terrorist over concerns that a denial would’ve foiled a larger investigation into al-Qaida threats against the United States.

“Revocation action would’ve disclosed what they were doing,” Kennedy said in testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security. Allowing Adbulmutallab to keep the visa increased chances federal investigators would be able to get closer to apprehending the terror network he is accused of working with, “rather than simply knocking out one solider in that effort.” (more)

By SPENCER ACKERMAN
The Washington Independent

If there was any doubt that Republicans in Congress will oppose this year’s push from President Obama to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) speech Wednesday to the Heritage Foundation ought to have laid it to rest. In the course of a half hour’s worth of invective against the administration’s counterterrorism policies, the Senate minority leader pledged to block funding for any efforts at giving terrorism detainees trials in civilian courts. But he held out a special reverence for the much-vilified locus for military commissions and indefinite detention. “Thankfully, Gitmo is still open for business,” McConnell said.

McConnell then turned, briefly, to an argument that is starting to be shared by McConnell’s typical political enemies — and which could seriously complicate the administration’s plans for the final closure of Guantanamo Bay. If Obama simply moves the military commissions and indefinite detentions featured at Guantanamo to a new detention facility in Thomson, Ill. — as the administration currently plans –then there is “no doubt” that al-Qaeda will use Thomson “for the same recruiting and propaganda purposes” it’s used toward Guantanamo, McConnell said, a prospect that “eliminates the administration’s only justification for closing Guantanamo.” (more)

Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – People who drink two or more sweetened soft drinks a week have a much higher risk of pancreatic cancer, an unusual but deadly cancer, researchers reported on Monday.

People who drank mostly fruit juice instead of sodas did not have the same risk, the study of 60,000 people in Singapore found.

Sugar may be to blame but people who drink sweetened sodas regularly often have other poor health habits, said Mark Pereira of the University of Minnesota, who led the study.

“The high levels of sugar in soft drinks may be increasing the level of insulin in the body, which we think contributes to pancreatic cancer cell growth,” Pereira said in a statement. Insulin, which helps the body metabolize sugar, is made in the pancreas. (more)

By David Edwards and Gavin Dahl
The Raw Story

Sarah Palin clearly had notes scribbled on her hand at the National Tea Party Convention Saturday.

Huffington Post obtained photos of the former governor answering pre-determined questions after her $100,000 speech.

At the same event, Palin mocked President Barack Obama’s use of a teleprompter.

“This is about the people and it’s bigger than any king or queen of a tea party and it’s a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter,” said Palin.

During a question and answer session after her address to the convention, Palin clearly looks down, reading notes off her hand. The words included “energy” “tax” and “lift American spirits.” (more)

by Faiz Shakir
Think Progress

Last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) besmirched the reputation of FBI agents who interrogated terrorist Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab after he was arrested. “He was given a 50 minute interrogation, probably Larry King has interrogated people longer and better than that,” McConnell said on Fox News.

This morning on ABC’s This Week, Center for American Progress Action Fund President and CEO John Podesta noted that intelligence agents have skillfully secured the cooperation of Abdulmuttalab’s family. Because his family was assured that Abdulmuttalab was not being tortured, they worked with the FBI to convince the terrorist to talk. Abdulmuttalab then provided intelligence, some of which was apparently used to capture terrorists in Malaysia.

“I think you can huff and puff as former Governor Palin likes to do, but the proof’s in the pudding — he’s talking, they’ve gotten actionable intelligence, they’re acting on it,” Podesta said. When conservative pundit Peggy Noonan complained that the administration shouldn’t have told the public that Abdulmuttalab was cooperating, Podesta suggested disclosure may not have been necessary if political leaders like McConnell weren’t criticizing intelligence agents:

PODESTA: Maybe if all those politicians stopped attacking the FBI – Mitch McConnell likened the FBI to a Larry King interview – maybe if they stopped with the politics –

(more with video)

by The abyss
The Democratic Underground
cross posted at The Daily Mail

A U.S. soldier has been accused of ‘waterboarding’ his four-year-old daughter because she couldn’t recite the alphabet.
Joshua Tabor admitted to police that he used the CIA torture technique because he was so angry.

As his daughter ’squirmed’ to get away, Tabor said he submerged her face – upwards – three or four times until the water was lapping around her forehead and jawline.

Tabor, 27, admitted to investigators that his daughter was terrified of water and he had deliberately chosen the punishment.

The practice of waterboarding has been used by the CIA to break Al Qaeda suspects at Guantanamo Bay and at secret prisons.

Detainees, including the mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks Khalid Shaikh Mohammed had water poured over their face until they feared they were about the drown. (more)

AFP

ROME (AFP) – The international community must unite to pressure Iran as it seeks to boost its nuclear programme, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.

“No one has tried more sincerely to reach out and engage with Iran than the President (Barack) Obama,” Gates said after meeting his Italian counterpart Ignazio La Russa in Rome.

“The international community has offered the Iranian government multiple opportunities to provide reassurance of its intentions. The results have been very disappointing.”

“If the international community will stand together and bring pressure on the Iranian government, I believe there is still time for sanctions and pressure to work. But we must all work together.” (more)

BBC Online

Partial results from Ukraine put pro-Moscow opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych on course for a narrow win in the country’s presidential election.

With more than half the votes counted Mr Yanukovych had a 4% lead over his rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

He has challenged Mrs Tymoshenko to quit, but she refused to concede.

If confirmed, it would be a remarkable comeback for Mr Yanukovych, who was swept aside five years ago by the peaceful “Orange Revolution”.

Under the 59-year-old former mechanic, Ukraine’s foreign policy is expected to become more pro-Russian. (more)

by Mike Konczal
New Deal 2.0

I just found a short, must-read presentation on the shadow banks. But first:

I think the Volcker Rule is a good first step that I am excited about as it starts to get at the problem of shadow banks, but I am incredibly unhappy with the both the follow-through on it, and how it isn’t getting at the actual problems with overlapping business models creating ’shadow banks’ subject to bank runs.

If you follow the finance blogs but aren’t necessarily in the deep end, you may not know what people are getting at when they say that the real problem is with how lending is done in the capital markets. Yves Smith gets it, and as bond girl pointed out “the old classifications used to mean something because banks were the locus of credit intermediation. Now that this function has largely shifted to the credit markets, through repos and securitization, for example, they are less relevant.”

Trying to get a working definition and a coherent explanation for journalists and laypeople of shadow banks and overlapping business models is something I’ve been trying to do for a while. It’s important because you need to see that relationship in order to get what works and what doesn’t with the Volcker Rule, and how it needs to be expanded. With the way Volcker and the administration are selling the reform, it looks like their mental model of the financial markets stopped in the 1970s – and it’s incredibly important, for a narrative of what broke and how to fix it, to see the way financial markets and lending have changed over the past 30 years. (more)

By Charlotte Dennett
Alternet.org

In a week when one-year report cards on the Obama administration were piling up and not all the grades were good, Americans searching for the real change we heard so much about on Obama’s campaign trail were hit with some news that would send his grades plummeting. Late last Friday, we learned that Obama’s Department of Justice plans to go easy on John Yoo and Jay Bybee — the two assistant attorney generals under Bush who penned the infamous torture memos. For those who have been working long and hard in the accountability movement to make sure no one — not even presidents or their top advisors — is above the law, this was a serious setback.

As part of that movement, I was appalled. Not just because I want to see those who committed crimes in office punished rather than excused. Not just because I want to see the Obama White House restore accountability to government rather than cover up crimes committed by the former administration. And not just because Yoo and Bybee memo’d-up legal opinions stating that torture techniques as egregious and illegal as waterboarding were acceptable. No, there is a deeper question in play here: Why were they really asked to render these opinions in the first place? (more)

By Matt Ford
CNN.com

(Solar panels at the Vatican)

The price of power has always been a political issue — but now campaigners argue it could be the key to starting a green energy revolution.

On February 1, the British Government announced details of the rates that will be paid for renewable power generated by homeowners and communities.

Called the Clean Energy Cashback, or feed-in tariff (FIT), the aim is to provide an above-market bonus that will encourage individuals and groups to invest in solar panels, wind turbines and other forms of green power.

It’s the first national scheme of its kind in the UK, although FIT plans have been operating in other EU countries and at regional levels in the U.S. (more)

By JUDY BATTISTA
The New York Times

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The New Orleans Saints almost left when their city flooded and their home stadium had been turned into a shelter, a disaster seeming to provide the perfect escape route for a better stadium and a bigger market. Displaced and disheartened, the Saints haltingly returned to a repaired Superdome after Hurricane Katrina. A team so awful that fans used to wear bags on their heads came to symbolize and be embraced by a battered but rebuilding community.

On Sunday night, with a quarterback who had hitched his career to resurrecting the Saints and New Orleans together playing nearly flawlessly, the Saints gave New Orleans a reason to do what it does better than any other American city: celebrate. In the franchise’s first Super Bowl, the Saints upset the Indianapolis Colts, 31-17, sending New Orleanians into the streets for a party.

The play that sealed the victory, a comeback from a 10-0 deficit, came at the expense of a New Orleans native. Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, the son of the beloved former Saints quarterback Archie Manning, was intercepted by Saints cornerback Tracy Porter when the Saints blitzed him on third down and Porter jumped in front of the intended receiver Reggie Wayne. (more)

By FRAZIER MOORE
AP

NEW YORK – Super Bowl viewers were rubbing their eyes at the sight of a TV spot pairing CBS late-night host David Letterman with longtime NBC archrival Jay Leno, plus media magnate Oprah Winfrey.

Appearing early in the CBS-aired game Sunday, the ad depicted Letterman and Leno glumly sharing a couch watching the Super Bowl, with Winfrey seated between them trying to make peace.

Letterman grumbles, “This is the worst Super Bowl party ever.”

“Now, Dave, be nice,” Winfrey urges.

A disgruntled Leno replies that Letterman is only complaining “because I’m here.” (more)